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Ultimate 60's war ( Vietnam ) protest song , Masters of War by Bobby Dylan :

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

'Masters of War' was not about the Vietnam War - - it was about ALL war and those who profit from it (the defense industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about in his farewell speech?). The song was included on Dylan's Freewheelin' album which was released in May 1963 (Kennedy was President!) and Vietnam was just coming onto the radar screen.

On July 1, 1978, I saw B.D. play that song at a rock festival in Nuremberg at the Zeppelinfeld, site of the infamous Nazi Party rallies held there in the 1930s. He introduced the song by saying simply "I can't believe that I'm singing this song here."

Not only was "Masters of War" written at least two years before American troops saw any action at all in Vietnam, but Dylan's folk/protest period of his career lasted exactly that same period of time -- two years. That's two years out of more than forty. But for some strange reason that's the era many people want to remember him by. .....his weakest.

the press kept promoting me as a mouthpiece, spokesman, or even conscience of a generation. That was funny. All I'd ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities. I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of.

I find this hard to believe. Are we talking about the same Bob Dylan? Not really, he is forty years older now and he sees things differently. But, I still remember.

Masters of war mp3 file:

http://praxeology.net/mastersofwar2.mp3